the turtle speaks

Pro-life verses pro-existence

Tue, 29 May 2012 07:54:54 -0500

My inner-Republican and inner-Democrat (again, rocking the stereotypes. They have previously discussed the issues of credit and poverty ) discuss what it means to be pro-life

Of course he shouldn’t [neglect his kids], but he’ll never change his ways. Are you going to take out your disapproval on his children?

-To Kill A Mockingbird

DL: Remember high school AP Government?

RL: When we sat at the back with the other conservatives, huddled together for safety?

DL: Yeah. Good Times™. We had that one debate on abortion, remember? Someone, realizing your position, asking what you would do if your wife were going to die unless her pregnancy were terminated?

RL: Yes. We said something like “Well, I’d kiss her and tell her I love her, but we wouldn’t kill the baby.”

DL: Didn’t put a lot of thought into that, did you? Had you been married at the time? Had you even a serious girlfriend?

RL: So I may have been a little hyperbolic to make a point. I mean, pro-life has to be defended…

DL: Fair enough. I’ll forgive us for being 18. I think many who say they are pro-life are actually just pro-existence

RL: What’s the difference?

DL: Well, you’ve heard it said Life begins at conception, but I say unto you that Life may begin at conecption, but it doesn’t end at birth. Life means more than just being alive.

RL: I’m not sure I follow…

DL: You may want to force someone to have a child she does not want, but what kind of life are you condemning it to? Whether you agree with the legailty of abortion or not, a woman currently has the right to prevent a child from coming to term. If a woman were forced to give birth, an unwanted human enters the world.

RL: Those are the consequences of decisions. You know I’m really big on consequences and personal responsibility, right?

DL: Yes. I remember that as a sticking point from our prior talks. What do you think of this though:

It is a moral necessity that we not be forced to bring children into the world for whom we cannot be responsible and adoring and present. We must not inflict life on children who will be resented; we must not inflict unwanted children on society.

Anne Lamott, Grace (Eventually)

RL: I’m not in favor of unwanted children.

DL: That’s true. Few are. But do you see that unwanted pregnancies bring unwanted children?

RL: Yes, but the mother — and father — should want the child.

DL: Agreed. But if that were the case, abortion wouldn’t be an option. And the adults’ lack of desire to love and raise a child is not that child’s fault.

RL: I see. So what do you propose?

DL: Pro-lifers need to adopt a posture that involves promoting life in all its forms. This means providing educational and financial opportunities for women, providing daycare opportunities for working women, especially single mothers, providing parenting resources, and especially promoting foster care and adoption.

RL: Is that what provoked our interest in fostering and adoption?

DL: Partly, yes. It seemed to me that being pro-life was more than just being pro-existence. Pro-life thus conceived would also include microfinancing, serving the underserved, promoting under-funded schools, mentoring the fatherless, helping the homeless, etc.

RL: That all makes a lot of sense. So you’re saying if we want to force children into the world, we need to make the world a good place to live?

DL: Yes. Regardless of the abortion debate and outcome, all people need to be pro-life. This should especially be true of people of faith. In fact, I would go so far to say that you shouldn’t be allowed to be against abortion unless you’re actively involved in making the world a better place for the unwanted.

RL: Sounds good to me.

Same method, but now resurrection free!

Sat, 26 May 2012 07:55:24 -0500

Same method, but now resurrection free!

"There is the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Therefore there must be a God. You either see this one..."

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:58:00 -0500

“

There is the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Therefore there must be a God.

You either see this one or you don’t.

”

- Peter Kreeft’s The Argument from Aesthetic Experience

What was the greatest thing _before_ sliced bread?

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:38:01 -0500

Anyone?

My boys need to learn this

Wed, 23 May 2012 09:08:11 -0500

My boys need to learn this

These boys just heard what? What is we just found out...

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:17:44 -0500

These boys just heard what?
What is we just found out Mommy’s pregnant, Alex?

Statistically accurate love song.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:32:05 -0500

Statistically accurate love song.

"Religious thought may be vulnerable on any number of fronts, but it is not vulnerable to the..."

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:01:05 -0500

“Religious thought may be vulnerable on any number of fronts, but it is not vulnerable to the criticism that in contrast to scientific or empirical thought, it rests on mere faith.”

- Stanley Fish

Excellent short article on marriage

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:00:05 -0500

Excellent short article on marriage:

Worth 3 minutes of your life.

Fellow motorists, This is an accident. Some are better, some...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:43:47 -0600

Fellow motorists,

This is an accident. Some are better, some are worse. Sometimes people are slightly injured and other times there are serious injuries.

Please stare at this picture as long as necessary. Then, if you see an accident while driving, you don’t have to slow down. Keep driving and maintain your speed.

Thank you.

"Beware the patriot who doesn’t have a passport."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:31:34 -0600

“Beware the patriot who doesn’t have a passport.”

- Kim Fabricius

Trying to get my kids to be hard-core gamers. We also let them...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:53:31 -0600

Trying to get my kids to be hard-core gamers.

We also let them play the Wii occasionally…

Honest questions about Christmas music

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:59:00 -0600

I love me some Christmas music. There’s lots of uplifting messages, old-school melodies, and warm fuzzy feelings. I find, however, a few questions about some lyrics that I throw out there. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Little Lord Jesus no crying he makes‽ What kind of [docetic] Christology is that?
Holy infant so tender and mild‽ Is this a baby or a chicken curry dish?
Who is Parson Brown? Does he frequently inquire into the marital status of people and is he in the habit of haphazardly marrying others when he’s in town?
Is the guy from Baby, It’s Cold Outside guilty of persistence or harassment? (No means no, people)
What if you only have heterosexual apparel to don? Can you still deck the halls?
What and where is Santa Claus Lane?

There are no questions about Little Drummer Boy, All I want for Christmas is You, and Christmas Wrapping (aka Christmas by myself this year). They speak for themselves (and not in a good way).

I'm reasonably sure my wife isn't _the one_ for me

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:12:16 -0500

It doesn’t take too long of listening to popular culture before you hear people talking about the one or a soulmate; the person who they are meant for and who compliments them in every way. The person they were destined to be with (by God, Fate, the Universe, Madam Cleo, etc).

I’ve been happily married to the same woman for a little over a decade, but I think it’s time to just come out and say I don’t think she’s my soulmate. That would mean that of the over 3 billion women on the planet, I happen to have found the perfect match. Unlikely.

“But wait!” I hear you say, “some of those are already married or too young or old. And you’ve never met any women from Mongolia, so you can’t count them.”

This is true. So let’s narrow it down a bit. Some general traits that are important to me with a rough numerical estimate:

A woman (3.75 billion)
Shorter than I am (99% of women)
±3 years of my age (120 million or so)
Speaks English (~380 million)
Shares my faith heritage (~1 million)
Is interesting to me (?)
Is attractive to me (?)
Isn’t psychotic

There are, of course, more specific criterion that are important to me, but you get the idea. Add to this a few key points:

She and I would have to meet (~10,000 or so)
She is interested and attracted to me (quite small I’m sure)

Even if one were to limit my options to the women at the small, faith-based, private University I went to, that’s still several hundred choices. I didn’t even know half their names.

What I can safely say with confidence is that of all the girls I’ve known (and especially of those I’ve dated), my wife is the best choice of all of them.

So at the risk of sounding cynical, it seems highly improbable that my life circumstances have brought me into contact with the perfect person for me. If there even is a perfect person for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my wife and am very happy with my decision and our life together. It’s that I think the one thinking and language (prominent in pop songs and romantic comedies) is detrimental to healthy relationships. Here’s why:

Basing the relationship on mutual choice rather than some metaphysical compatibility puts the emphasis on commitment to the other person rather than to a relationship ideal. You have a spouse because you consciously choose to love them; not because it was meant to be.
You realize there are hundreds or thousands of people you might be equally happy with (or happier in some regards, less in others), but that there would be rocky times too. Removing “the one” ideal from a relationship puts your current relationship on par with hypothetical ones.
You realize that in some sense you “settle” for who you get in a relationship. This can be liberating.
If your soulmate were to change their mind and run off (as happens with frequency) then they either weren’t your soulmate or, worse yet, the person most meant for you turned on you (ouch).

I look forward to many more decades of marriage to my bride. She’s still the one I want to be with the rest of my life. And our relationship will get better because we work on it and make it better. I’m sure there’s some equally good matches for me out there (even in my limited life experience), but they haven’t been with me the last decade. And that counts for a lot.

Also:

"From the days of our founders the social contract of the United States has been equal opportunity. A..."

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:01:06 -0500

“From the days of our founders the social contract of the United States has been equal opportunity. A newborn child bears no responsibility for the circumstances of her birth and yet is often destined to a life of advantage or disadvantage based on those circumstances. The American commitment to equal opportunity is not being fulfilled. With what we know, it is morally offensive not to act.”

- George Kaiser, Tulsa billionaire and über-philantropist, from a Forbe’s article

merlin: “Where you see only ten sets of footprints, the...

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 09:07:02 -0500

merlin:

“Where you see only ten sets of footprints, the reindeer and I were carrying you.”

Jesus wept (the real one, not shown here)

Cutting back on TV is like cutting back on soda (or high-sugar of any kind). Once you’ve done...

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:40:05 -0500

Cutting back on TV is like cutting back on soda (or high-sugar of any kind). Once you’ve done it, even moderate amounts don’t taste good. Quote of the day:

When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better.

But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.

You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you’ll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it.

- FCC chairman Newton N. Minow speaking to the convention of the National Association of Broadcasters.

I love this quote. The kicker? It’s from May 9, 1961. When there were three television networks and the world was still inventing color. Wonder what Minow would say about the state of the medium today (he’s 85).

Trivium: the S. S. Minnow from Gilligan’s Island was named in “honor” of his assessment.

It's [nearly] football time in Oklahoma

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:33:00 -0500

I am an Oklahoma Sooners fan. When I was a boy, I asked my dad whether he ‘liked OU or OSU’ (as my bifurcated cousins wondered), and he replied that he tended to like OU.

On the one hand, it’s easy to be an OU fan, as any list of superlatives and quick facts demonstrate. It’s easy to back a winner and, unfortunately, easy to bash a loser.

But to those who still have Oklahoma shirt from 1997 (4 wins, 8 losses) and don’t jump ship at every BCS loss, there’s something more to it than that.

It’s about identity. It’s about state pride. It’s about saying “Our topsoil may have blown off to the Dakotas, 1/5 of our population may have limped off to California, we may be a flyover state somewhere in the middle*, and we may have lots of red dirt that stains our clothes and our hearts, but that’s our team. They can play, and we’re proud of them.”

“Anywhere you go, anytime you mention you’re from Oklahoma, people immediately think of our football team. That’s not a negative. It’s what we’re known for.”

(Max Weitzenhoffer, quoted in an excellent ESPN.com article)

Yup, it’s nearly fall, and that means that it’s nearly football time in Oklahoma.

* From Sleepless in Seattle:

“Dear Sleepless in Seattle. I live in Tulsa.”
Where’s that?
In Oklahoma.
Where is that?
Somewhere in the middle.

"Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday..."

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:16:06 -0500

“Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”

- Susan Ertz, Anger in the Sky (1943)

Just had a lady tell me “I could never do foster care. It’d hurt too much when they...

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:10:44 -0500

Just had a lady tell me “I could never do foster care. It’d hurt too much when they leave.”

Im guessing she doesn’t know that is what foster families sign up for or she thinks they are immune to the pain of separation and loss.